Archbishop+Carroll+HS

__An IB Investigation for the Girls Preparatory School of Chattanooga, TN (performed by Chris Zeller): __ //Contact Information: //Tel. (202) 529-0900 x135 mblaufuss@archbishopcarroll.org
 * //Response generated by Beth Blaufuss of Archbishop Carroll HS – Washington, D.C. //**


 * NOTE: Beth is familiar with GPS as a Harpeth Hall graduate. Has recently gone through the process and is willing to assist in any portion of the stage needed.

// We have chosen to focus primarily on IB, and to make AP exams available to those who wish to take them but not to try to keep both sets of standards in mind. However, I know several schools do collocate IB and AP curricula within the same course. //
 * 1. ****Can an AP class and an IB class be operated in the same classroom? Is this counterintuitive? **

//We offer the following: IB English A HL; IB Spanish, French and Latin SL; IB History-Americas Focus HL; IB Biology HL; IB Mathematics and IB Math Studies SL; IB Art SL and IB Music SL. We are in our first year of offering IB, and we chose to start with limited course offerings to get a strong sense of how to do IB well before we expand. //
 * 2. What IB courses does your department offer and at what level? **

//There is a significantly larger administrative/paperwork component to IB than to AP. Other than that, we are thrilled with the impact IB is already having on our instruction and on the creativity of our students’ thinking in all disciplines. //
 * 3. What are the downsides to having an IB program? **

//As an independent school, we’ve actually found that the professional community and external standards are welcome yardsticks and sources of ideas. We have intentionally placed greater emphasis on students’ completing the diploma than on reaching any particular score to brag about, so we’re trying to limit the stress on ourselves. Having said that, each of my IB teachers has had a moment when they’ve panicked a little about the level of sophistication of thought and amount of content knowledge students need to have to be successful in IB, so we’re in a productive kind of bipolar state as a group. //
 * 4. What additional, if any, stresses are placed on students and/or faculty? **

//The learner profile has given us a framework around which to emphasize different kinds of thinking throughout our curriculum; it is the basis for our dialogue about goal-setting in all courses, not just IB, and for that reason IB is helping all of our courses place greater emphasis on higher order thinking and initiative. In a more concrete way, our social studies department has realigned its course offerings for all students to mirror the IB sequence, and we’ve added a required senior semester thesis course for non-IB students, so that they can have an extended essay-like experience. //
 * 5. How has the addition of an IB program affected your overall curriculum? Departmental offerings? Scope and sequencing? **

//Not really. Our IB students get health as part of their IB Biology course, so that is the one course required of non-IB students only. // //<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">We’ve kept the same .5 GPA bump (on a 4.0 scale) and have kept traditional A,B,C,D, F grades for IB students. Our teachers frequently give both a “Carroll grade” and an “IB” grade to assignments, so that they can be honest with students about how their work stacks up to IB criteria but so that teachers can still take effort and other school factors into account with grades. //
 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">6. Are graduation requirements different for an IB student than for a regular student? **
 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">7. How do you assess? Is assessment different for an IB student? For an AP student? For a regular student? **

//<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The training is not rigorous, but it is essential. Even more important, we’re finding, is networking—particularly as a new IB school, our teachers are learning as much from experienced IB teachers in our area and from their workshops as they did from the workshops themselves. We’ve only taken advantage of live trainings, not online. I’d suggest skipping level 1training and doing level 2. //
 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">8. To what extent and expense must faculty be trained to teach an IB course? How many faculty do you have teaching in the IB program? How rigorous is the training? Is there any online training? **

//<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">I’ve got to figure that out in the next 18 months (our juniors are our first cohort). //
 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">9. How does the external testing through the IB organization work? **

//<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Workshops and networking. //
 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">10. If your school is new to the IB program, how were your faculty members trained? Workshops? On-line? Combination? **

//<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">More creative; IB courses compel initiative and problem-solving. //
 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">11. How different is the IB course from the AP or regular course of the same name? **

//<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">So far, yes. //
 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">12. Are all your academic departments equally pleased with the move to an IB program? Why or why not? **

//<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Yes. Our honors 10th grade courses are “pre-IB,” and teachers have been to DP training in their disciplines. We dialogued about each student’s performance in all pre-IB courses before approving them for the DP. //
 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">13. If you offer only the Diploma Programme (11th and 12th grades only), are there prerequisites/requirements for the IB courses? **

//<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">See #13. We need to do more, though—this really is a different way of thinking—so we are looking into doing 9-10 MYP for all students. //
 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">14. How do you prepare your 7th - 10th grade students for participation in the IB program? **

//<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">We’ve found that we have a few parents who know they are going to be transferred who have chosen our school specifically because we have IB, and they can move in and out of international schools more easily with IB credit. That’s maybe more of a concern for DC schools. //
 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">15. If a student leaves your school prior to graduation, does the IB credit transfer easily? **

//<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">They are thrilled. //
 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">16. How has your parent community responded to the IB program? **

//<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','serif';">I strongly recommend doing the consultant option for your application. //
 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">17. What do you wish you had known about the IB program prior to implementation that you did not know to ask? **<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','serif';">

//<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','serif';">We take this on a case-by-case basis. We definitely accept the credits; whether a student has the pre-requisite knowledge and skills to transfer into the DP as a senior would be tricky. We’ve had some 10th and 11th grade transfers who have taken to IB swimmingly. //
 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','serif';">18. If a girl transfers from a non-IB school with elevated honors/AP credits, are these credits accepted at an IB school? **

//<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','serif';">We cultivate donors to help subsidize the cost of testing for low-income students. The professional development and membership costs are borne by the school. Fortunately, we’ve gotten some donors as excited about IB as we are, so we haven’t had any problems raising funds to pull it off. //
 * <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','serif';">19. How does your school handle the encompassed costs associated with an IB class (student or school responsibility)? **